The present invention is with respect to an anti-crash system for motorvehicles having an airbag designed to be automatically inflated when the vehicle is decelerated at more than a given rate, the airbag being placed between the driver and the back end of a steering shaft which is at an angle of about 10.degree. to 60.degree. to the horizontal, within the steering wheel and on the driver's side of the steering wheel spokes.
In a known anti-crash system on these general lines, see German Offenlegungsschrift specification No. 2,248,925, the folded-up airbag, designed to be inflated, and the gas generator are placed in an "impact" box (with a cushioning effect), which is placed at the top end of the sloping steering shaft within the steering wheel and on the driver's side of the steering wheel spokes. This known anti-crash system has the shortcoming that the airbag, on blowing up, is pushed violently against the driver's chest and into his face. The airbag then has a great volume so that while the body and head of the driver are, it is true, safeguarded, the driver is, however, not able to go on driving, the airbag being pushed at a high speed into his face so that he is not able to see straightforwards out of the car.
Because of these undesired and unpleasing effects, the system for triggering the gas generator has to have such an adjustment that it is only on a high rate of deceleration and, more specially, in the case of a heavy smash-up that gas is produced with an effect like an explosion, this in itself counting as a shortcoming because, in light collisions with a low deceleration rate, the airbag will not be inflated so that the driver's head will be moved violently against the steering wheel.